Look, if it's a fight you want, I'm an easy enough guy to find. Just say you want to do this, and we'll do this, okay?

Seriously, though, I do get and recognize the game has some flaws, especially if you're playing it as originally presented -- which is my least-recommended way to play. I think that the Restore Points/Save States on the Wii U/3DS negate a LOT of that if you use them properly, though.

Really, I'd love to see a new game from Nintendo that takes everything great about the game -- and before anyone says anything, there's a lot that's great about it -- and refines the rougher edges, like starting back at North Palace after a Game Over or restart, not saving experience points or lives, etc.

Frankly, the two NES games, LttP, LBW, and TP are probably my Top 5 Zelda games (if we're looking purely at main series).

Nah, I agree with this. I mean, I don't know if Zelda 2 was a deliberate inspiration, but the focus on exploration, punishing death with a loss of experience and the way combat has a feeling of ebb and flow all feel very Zelda 2. At the very least, I get much more of a Zelda vibe than I do Castlevania (though I do get why people make that comparison).

I apologize for advancing that opinion in the Dark Souls thread of the official Dark Souls forum. I can certainly see where it might be obnoxious to have people turn the subject of the thread into another game entirely.

(In truth I haven't developed enough of an opinion on Dark Souls to say what I think about it either way, but by god does seeing it get brought up in every discussion get annoying.)